Reading out loud

We're reading a very good book together, my boyfriend and I. Or more to the truth; he reads it for us. Out loud.

Did you have someone reading to you when you were a child? Do you remember how cozy it was? How special it made you feel?

My mother used to read to me and my brother a lot when we were little. I think she stopped reading to me when I was about five and choose to read the books myself. (I taught myself how to read when I was four. Winnie the Puh was the first book I read myself.) When my sister was old enough for books with more words in them than ball, table, kitten, and tree, I did most of the reading for her. The two of us would curl up on the cough or in a bed and I'd read. I'd make up funny voices for the different characters and my sister almost always hated them. She'd force me to change them into something she liked. Thinking about it now I guess she might have had a hard time understanding the different foreign accents I used. Or tried to imitate...

My sister had me read her thick chapter books long after she could read on her own. I remember how my throat always went sore after a while of reading out loud (why is that?) and if my sister wasn't ready to let the book go for the afternoon or evening, she'd pick it up and read out loud to me. An eight-year-old reading to a sixteen-year-old.

Two summers ago, boyfriend was rereading Röde Orm for the umpfth time, and I was soooo tired of him telling me that I should give the book a shot. I told him I didn't feel like reading it but that I wouldn't mind it if he read it out loud to me instead. So he did. Night after night we'd sit on the cough or in front of the fire place and get lost in excited adventures. Together.

He's got the perfect voice and melody for reading out loud. He makes perfect voices to the characters and he easily finds the rythm in words and sentences. I could listen to him reading forever. But it always ends in him having a very sore throat and not being able to continue...